KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Foreign investors are making a comeback at the local bourse, albeit at a slow and measured pace, according to MIDF Research.

In his weekly fund flow report today, MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said that last week, foreigners made net of purchases of equities listed on Bursa amounting to RM283.3 million, reversing the RM197.1 millin outflow the week before.
He said this was estimated based on transactions in the open market and excluded off market deals.
Zulkifli said that after selling marginally on Monday and Tuesday, foreigners turned net buyers everyday for the rest of the week.
 
He said the buying peaked on Thursday, when an amount of RM211 million was mopped up, the highest in 10 trading days.
 
“The momentum tapered on Friday, but the amount bought was still significant at RM85 million.
 
“Last week’s foreign purchases reduced the cumulative year-to-date outflow for 2016 to only RM630 million. For the entire 2015, the net outflow was RM19.5 billion,” he said.
 
Zulkifli said foreign participation rate (average daily traded value of shares) rose 6% to RM936 million.
 
He said it remained below RM1 billion for the second consecutive week.
 
“Local investors were passive sellers last week. Local institutions sold RM226.8 million on relatively moderate RM1.99 billion participation rate.
 
“The participation rate of local institutions should be well above RM2 billion for an active market,” he said.
Zulkifli said most retail investors were still not in the market last week as the Chinese New Year celebration only officially ends on Feb 22 with Chap Goh Mei.
 
He said retailers sold RM57 million last week, after making a small but surprising purchase of RM28 million during the New Year week.
 
He added that participation rate of local retailers picked up last week but was still noticeably subdued at RM583 million.